What is the hippest part of Portland currently? (Beaverton, Beaver: middle school, living)

[Yankeemama]

Originally Posted by CanuckInPortland

42nd already gets yuppies, once restaurants get written up on Eater, you're getting the foodie crowd. St. Johns, I don't get up there that much, but I have friends who live in Cathedral Park area who are basically professional types and get along fine living up there. Though my wife and I are professionals in Portland in our 30s too, so we're basically yuppies at this point in terms of our tastes.

Maybe the closest thing to what you're describing would be closer to SE 82nd though it's only got a few music venues or artists, and decidedly not very attractive area for walking, but it does have a mix of edgineess and cheap ethnic food. Though places like Old Town Portland or Pioneer Square in Seattle or Downtown Eastside in Vancouver have tons of homeless people and some edginess in parts, but they're also basically adjacent to the most sort of poseur or bridge and tunnel crowd-attracting venues. Nothing really stays undiscovered these days, with the internet, everyone knows about everywhere though and it's not like in the pre-2000s when the re-investment in central urban areas hadn't peaked yet.

There were truly hip hoods on the 80's and 90's but not anymore. A lot of SF was truly hip in the late 80's- early 90's and a bit in the mid 90's. NYC, too. Now SoHo is a mall. LA is the only place that seems to be attracting artists because it is so spread out there is a ton of it that remains gentrified.

[CanuckInPortland]

Originally Posted by Yankeemama

There were truly hip hoods on the 80's and 90's but not anymore. A lot of SF was truly hip in the late 80's- early 90's and a bit in the mid 90's. NYC, too. Now SoHo is a mall. LA is the only place that seems to be attracting artists because it is so spread out there is a ton of it that remains gentrified.

Yeah, it's too expensive everywhere because now you have investors putting money into older central city neighborhoods again. I don't know where the cheap places for artists or musicians are that are actually hip and affordable these days. But what is hip is sort of fleeting, what's cool is cool forever even if other people think it's corny. When I was into indie or electronic music culture in the 90s (on the tail of the grunge rock years) all the older punks or hippies would remark how they found my generation and inauthentic and fake--while now my generation judges the next generation the same way. It was great when I got old and by my late 20s stopped caring about what was hip. Now, I'm a complete dork with a professional job and having more fun than ever.

Also what is "hip" can mean a whole lot depending on ones vantage point. I don't see the current generation flocking to Portland as much different than my generation--some want to pretend they're artists, others just want to wear goofy clothes and get laid, it's just more expensive these days. Most of the artists and musicians I knew in my twenties in Montreal and Vancouver and Boston ended up moving on since it's so hard to make a living at it and then lived fairly conventional lives by the time they got older.

This has been an interesting thread, but I don't even know any of this is really helping the OP, they might have just wanted to find a neighborhood where they can go to bars and have fun, and there's nothing wrong with that.

[cyberous]

Downtown Vancouver

[The Global Citizen]

You make a valid point and great assumption.

I posted in the Seattle thread about my challenge in Portland: lack of diversity. The ethnic diversity is struggling in so many ways. While I don't necessarily equate "hip" with "diverse", more often than not they are not mutually exclusive. All of the areas that I thought were hip are very sterile and monotone. And not to knock either characteristic, I just think that Portland's hipster tag is more theory than it is practicality.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by The Global Citizen

You make a valid point and great assumption.

I posted in the Seattle thread about my challenge in Portland: lack of diversity. The ethnic diversity is struggling in so many ways. While I don't necessarily equate "hip" with "diverse", more often than not they are not mutually exclusive. All of the areas that I thought were hip are very sterile and monotone. And not to knock either characteristic, I just think that Portland's hipster tag is more theory than it is practicality.

Interesting point of view. For me, Portland was whatever was considered "hip" a couple of decades ago. After a whole lot of people moved there because they thought it would make them hip as well, Portland became "un-hip." Too many people trying too hard to be original but instead embracing what everyone everyplace else considers original.

Like hipsters claiming they are non-conformists when they all wear the same type of clothing, eat the same foods, and conform to the persona of being hipsters everywhere.

Not that it's a bad thing, you can find good things in Portland. It's just that I don't feel Portland is much "hipper" than many other places. Everything these days is homogenized because people see what's supposed to be trendy and they follow it no matter where they happen to live. I don't see a whole lot of originality anywhere.

Maybe it's the fault of the Internet and the instant spread of information. Something that looks original and different gets publicized so everyone can see what's happening somewhere else and decides to do the same. What was unique and different becomes mundane.

[Yankeemama]

Originally Posted by Minervah

Interesting point of view. For me, Portland was whatever was considered "hip" a couple of decades ago. After a whole lot of people moved there because they thought it would make them hip as well, Portland became "un-hip." Too many people trying too hard to be original but instead embracing what everyone everyplace else considers original.

Like hipsters claiming they are non-conformists when they all wear the same type of clothing, eat the same foods, and conform to the persona of being hipsters everywhere.

Not that it's a bad thing, you can find good things in Portland. It's just that I don't feel Portland is much "hipper" than many other places. Everything these days is homogenized because people see what's supposed to be trendy and they follow it no matter where they happen to live. I don't see a whole lot of originality anywhere.

Maybe it's the fault of the Internet and the instant spread of information. Something that looks original and different gets publicized so everyone can see what's happening somewhere else and decides to do the same. What was unique and different becomes mundane.

YES! An example is the Naked Bike Ride which is supposed to be so unique. I grew up in SF in the 70's where nudity was pretty common. That was 40 years ago! SF and Berkeley was super veggie, vegan and hip decades ago. I used to go to a moving dance party in the early - mid 80's which had dancers of all kinds... people with nose rings, belly piercings, dreads, tattoos. There were break dancers and people like me. There is nothing like that now because people are sheep and can't mix together. Those were original and amazing times. Truly hip but we didn't label "it" that. It was life in the city.

[Cliftonpdx]

Originally Posted by Yankeemama

YES! An example is the Naked Bike Ride which is supposed to be so unique. I grew up in SF in the 70's where nudity was pretty common. That was 40 years ago! SF and Berkeley was super veggie, vegan and hip decades ago. I used to go to a moving dance party in the early - mid 80's which had dancers of all kinds... people with nose rings, belly piercings, dreads, tattoos. There were break dancers and people like me. There is nothing like that now because people are sheep and can't mix together. Those were original and amazing times. Truly hip but we didn't label "it" that. It was life in the city.

I don't think the Naked Bike Ride is suppose to be a unique thing in Portland....it is a unique thing compared to many other cities in the US, but it is actually an international event.

World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) - Naked Bicycle People Power! Stop indecent exposure to vehicle emissions!
The site for Naked Bike Ride says that 70 cities in 20 countries are a part of it. So it is unique in the sense that only a small amount of cities participate in it, but it isn't something that is unique to Portland.

Also, in the 70s nudity was pretty common in the northwest as well, we have plenty of hippies that called the northwest home in the 70s. So that wasn't something that was unique to San Francisco either.

And I hate to break it to you, but even if you guys in the 70s didn't put a label on what you guys were doing in SF, there was still a label put on it. It was called the Hippie Movement or the Beat Generation, it is where the term beatnik and hippie came from.

[Yankeemama]

Originally Posted by Cliftonpdx

I don't think the Naked Bike Ride is suppose to be a unique thing in Portland....it is a unique thing compared to many other cities in the US, but it is actually an international event.

World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) - Naked Bicycle People Power! Stop indecent exposure to vehicle emissions!
The site for Naked Bike Ride says that 70 cities in 20 countries are a part of it. So it is unique in the sense that only a small amount of cities participate in it, but it isn't something that is unique to Portland.

Also, in the 70s nudity was pretty common in the northwest as well, we have plenty of hippies that called the northwest home in the 70s. So that wasn't something that was unique to San Francisco either.

And I hate to break it to you, but even if you guys in the 70s didn't put a label on what you guys were doing in SF, there was still a label put on it. It was called the Hippie Movement or the Beat Generation, it is where the term beatnik and hippie came from.

Of course there were hippies during the time but we had a much larger concentration of them and we were ground zero for much of the social change hat occurred during that time.

[Cliftonpdx]

Originally Posted by Yankeemama

Of course there were hippies during the time but we had a much larger concentration of them and we were ground zero for much of the social change hat occurred during that time.

Oh I fully agree, but my point was there was still a label for that.

For the 2000s, Portland was home to something that was rather unique to Portland in the sense that it is what made Portland, Portland to the people living here. I am not saying other places didn't make beer or coffee or made their own products, it was just something a city as a whole celebrated here. I am very happy to have been single in Portland for the 2000s. The best decision I ever made was moving down here from Washington rather than choosing to live in Seattle at that time.

[CanuckInPortland]

Just about every generation thinks they invented sex, drugs, and loud music.